acer iconia a100 Tab A100 (Wi-Fi)
The sweetest Honeycomb tablet we have seen at this point packs modern Android goodness to a pocket-sized package, with a brand new OS version going far to solve Android tablets' biggest problem to date: deficiency of decent tablet-sepcific apps. Even so the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100's petite form means a too-small battery. Alas, though we're giving this great little tablet a deep recommendation, its battery woes ensure that it stays from attaining Editors' Choice status.
The Wi-Fi-only acer iconia a100 Tab A100 costs $329.99 for an 8GB model and $349.99 for a 16GB unit, putting it part way through the 7-inch tablet realm between cheapo models such as Coby Kyros ($199, 2 stars) as well as HTC Flyer ($499, 3.5 stars) and BlackBerry PlayBook ($499, 2.5 stars). There's no policy for this to be picked up by way of U.S. 3G carrier, unlike its brother the Iconia A501, that is popping out from AT&T.
View Slideshow See all (6) slides
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Horizontal
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Angle
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Horizontal
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Back
More
Physical Features, Networking and Battery Life
Acer is not a king of industrial design, and the Iconia Tab A100 is a bit on the clunker with regards to looks. That's OK though; this tablet has a lot of other pursuits looking for it. The Iconia Tab A100 is actually a 7.7-by-4.6-by-0.5-inch (HWD), 13.9-ounce tablet made from shiny plastic which includes a cheap-looking silver design on its blue-gray back. The back and front feel just a little greasy, and often attract fingerprints. The tablet contains a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Volume buttons, an Orientation Lock switch, an electricity button, along with a couple of ports on the bottom. It charges from the proprietary adapter as opposed to a standard micro USB connection, but it also has a micro USB port to touch base to PCs, including a micro HDMI port to hook the tablet about an HDTV.
Switch the tablet on and you may view a 1024-by-600 touch-screen LCD of average brightness. At its Automatic Brightness setting it's noticeably dim and the screen is too reflective, but get up the brightness but it looks great. The stereo speakers on the bottom are loud enough to acquire their point across, but they're tinny, similar to all tablet speakers. I managed to get significantly better sound with the headphone jack and more than a set of stereo Bluetooth headphones. Acer advertises 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi here, but we couldn't find all of our 5GHz Wi-Fi networks with this tablet, though connecting to 2.4GHz networks was simple.
Curiously, the Iconia A100 has the benefit of a blocked Sim slot, even though slot is mentioned in the tablet's quick start guide. It is a lost opportunity, as I'd would delight an opportunity to pair the A100 by having an AT&T prepaid tablet plan.
The Iconia A100's Achilles heel, and also the reason it's actually not getting an Editors' Choice nod, is its poor life of the battery, thanks to a smaller-than-usual 3060mAh battery. (Most tablets have 4000mAh or larger batteries.) We simply got three hours, 53 minutes of video playback on the charge, there are not enough for any cross-country flight. In the 7-inch tablet realm, that compares poorly on the 8 hours, a quarter-hour we have got with the BlackBerry PlayBook, or maybe the 6 hours, 32 minutes on the Samsung Galaxy Tab ($399, 3.5 stars). It could be fewer than we percieve of all 10-inch tablets, such as the Apple iPad 2 ($499, 4.5 stars), which lasted 7 hours, a half-hour.
Android and Apps
The Iconia Tab A100 is the first tablet shipping with Android 3.2. This can be a big problem along with a wonderful thing. The Android Market, you will find above 200,000 phone apps, is hideously broken for tablets, and Android 3.2 does sufficient to fix things. It's difficult to acquire apps designed for tablet screens already in the market. While phone apps run, they often times look awkward or poorly designed.
Android 3.2's major new feature is Zoom Mode, which convinces phone apps that they are running over a smaller phone screen and magnifies text and images as opposed to entering chunks of your screen with space. This will not be perfect for 10-inch tablets; as we've seen about the iPad, apps devised for 3.5-inch screens and scaled up can easily still look very grainy on a 10-inch screen.
The Wi-Fi-only acer iconia a100 Tab A100 costs $329.99 for an 8GB model and $349.99 for a 16GB unit, putting it part way through the 7-inch tablet realm between cheapo models such as Coby Kyros ($199, 2 stars) as well as HTC Flyer ($499, 3.5 stars) and BlackBerry PlayBook ($499, 2.5 stars). There's no policy for this to be picked up by way of U.S. 3G carrier, unlike its brother the Iconia A501, that is popping out from AT&T.
View Slideshow See all (6) slides
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Horizontal
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Angle
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Horizontal
Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Back
More
Physical Features, Networking and Battery Life
Acer is not a king of industrial design, and the Iconia Tab A100 is a bit on the clunker with regards to looks. That's OK though; this tablet has a lot of other pursuits looking for it. The Iconia Tab A100 is actually a 7.7-by-4.6-by-0.5-inch (HWD), 13.9-ounce tablet made from shiny plastic which includes a cheap-looking silver design on its blue-gray back. The back and front feel just a little greasy, and often attract fingerprints. The tablet contains a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Volume buttons, an Orientation Lock switch, an electricity button, along with a couple of ports on the bottom. It charges from the proprietary adapter as opposed to a standard micro USB connection, but it also has a micro USB port to touch base to PCs, including a micro HDMI port to hook the tablet about an HDTV.
Switch the tablet on and you may view a 1024-by-600 touch-screen LCD of average brightness. At its Automatic Brightness setting it's noticeably dim and the screen is too reflective, but get up the brightness but it looks great. The stereo speakers on the bottom are loud enough to acquire their point across, but they're tinny, similar to all tablet speakers. I managed to get significantly better sound with the headphone jack and more than a set of stereo Bluetooth headphones. Acer advertises 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi here, but we couldn't find all of our 5GHz Wi-Fi networks with this tablet, though connecting to 2.4GHz networks was simple.
Curiously, the Iconia A100 has the benefit of a blocked Sim slot, even though slot is mentioned in the tablet's quick start guide. It is a lost opportunity, as I'd would delight an opportunity to pair the A100 by having an AT&T prepaid tablet plan.
The Iconia A100's Achilles heel, and also the reason it's actually not getting an Editors' Choice nod, is its poor life of the battery, thanks to a smaller-than-usual 3060mAh battery. (Most tablets have 4000mAh or larger batteries.) We simply got three hours, 53 minutes of video playback on the charge, there are not enough for any cross-country flight. In the 7-inch tablet realm, that compares poorly on the 8 hours, a quarter-hour we have got with the BlackBerry PlayBook, or maybe the 6 hours, 32 minutes on the Samsung Galaxy Tab ($399, 3.5 stars). It could be fewer than we percieve of all 10-inch tablets, such as the Apple iPad 2 ($499, 4.5 stars), which lasted 7 hours, a half-hour.
Android and Apps
The Iconia Tab A100 is the first tablet shipping with Android 3.2. This can be a big problem along with a wonderful thing. The Android Market, you will find above 200,000 phone apps, is hideously broken for tablets, and Android 3.2 does sufficient to fix things. It's difficult to acquire apps designed for tablet screens already in the market. While phone apps run, they often times look awkward or poorly designed.
Android 3.2's major new feature is Zoom Mode, which convinces phone apps that they are running over a smaller phone screen and magnifies text and images as opposed to entering chunks of your screen with space. This will not be perfect for 10-inch tablets; as we've seen about the iPad, apps devised for 3.5-inch screens and scaled up can easily still look very grainy on a 10-inch screen.